


Persistent One

by gooodvibes



Category: Captain America
Genre: Animal Abuse, Death of a dog, Gen, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-23
Updated: 2016-11-23
Packaged: 2018-09-01 14:35:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8628247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gooodvibes/pseuds/gooodvibes
Summary: Bucky adopts a dog from the Balkans.





	

**Author's Note:**

> first time posting idk how everything works!

Bucky realized that there were many things he could do, at least on his good days. Because there would be bad days, which often dominated at the beginning of his escape and road to recovery... which was what it was, wasn't it?

The bad days consisted of rage. Sometimes an unbelievably fury would build up inside him, he would claw floors, punch walls and shatter glass. Somedays were filled with apathy. Those were some of the worst moments, when he couldn't even lift his head from the matress. He stayed there so long it felt like his body mended in to the cushion beneath him.

There were split days.

Days where memories and the past came rushing back to him like overflowing waves and he would have to put the pieces together, try to figure out his own timeline.

Other days were static. Nothing new of the old came up, it was just the remainings of programmed weaponery which would leave him confused. Because what was he to do with this machinery, all this information with no use. On those days he couped in to a shitty room with curtains drawn and windows closed. He waited it out.

It took him quite sometime to actually go outside once he managed to get himself a one bed room apartment. It was strange at first.

He was a soldier, a machine, but also a new man; a brainwashed man seeing the world out of his own eyes and brain for the first time.

He only spent short amount of times outdoors at first. He was content with small glances and faint glimpses of what the world looked like.

He watched people around him as just that... people, and not a threat. He saw children staring at him quizically. He listened to birds chirping.

With time he became more confident and comfortable really in stepping out of the door and in to the wilderness of a new world. He wasn't able to stay in the same place for long once he actually decided to leave his apartment.

They were looking for him and he didn't want to be found.

The beginning was just acknowledgement; acknowledging himself, his past, what had happened to him, what had been done to him, what he himself had done; acknowledging life around him and even inside of him. 

After a long road though came the experience of enjoyment, and him allowing himself any of it.

Nothing really brought him any joy at first. It was hard to crack a smile, he wasn't even sure how to. But it came unexpectedly. It came with a little Macedonian girl furrowing her dark eyebrows at him and sticking out her tongue at him in the middle of the fish market. He felt the stretch of a grin on his face as he mimicked her. The little girl then erupted in laughter and he left with a second smile. It only continued after that. Finding an old apple pie recipe that resembled a lot like the one his ma used to make back in the day caused smiles and joy. 

Then what came next were a group of dogs, especially one dog, in one of the streets in Macedonia.

Every night at three am dogs would be barking outside his apartment. The neighbours would curse at these godforsaken creatures for interupting their sleeps.

He didn't sleep most of the time and even if he did, being woken by loud dogs weren't the worst way he'd ever been woken up.

The first night he took a loaf of bread, some milk and a bowl and head down the stairs and out of the apartment in those faux slippers with four stripes.

As he saw the dogs, he put a finger to his mouth to hush them. But the sight of a human being (was he that?) only caused them to bark louder.

He sat down at the steps, broke the bread in to pieces and threw them on the ground. He filled the bowl with milk and watched as the dogs devoured it. The whole bucket of milk emptied within seconds.

The dogs, there were four of them, were grateful for his mercy, if their wagging tails, silence and sprint towards him were something to judge by.

He felt a laughter slip from his mouth as he tried to move away from the dogs that were rubbing their fur against his skin. It felt lovely, he couldn't deny it, which was exactly why he was pushing the dogs away.

It was one dog in particular that was persistent who no matter how much he tried to push her away, she kept finding a way to either climb or lick him.

The next night at three am he woke from his slumber to his neighbour shouting foul words at the dogs so he repeated his chores from last night.

He broke the bread in to pieces and tried to make sure that all four of them got the same amount. One was a little bit rounder and a lot rougher, he'd ended up eating half of the bread last night and he was determined not to have that repeat itself. The dogs again wanted to thank him, but he ended up pushing them away again. Except for the dark persistent one. He let himself just touch the top of her head, because she had drops of milk on it somehow, he argued with himself.

The night after that he couldn't sleep so before the clock struck three he went outside and split the bread and had the two bowls of milk this time. When the four dogs came strutting by there was only a few barks. The bread and milk was gone and the dark persistent one, he didn't like how light and shiny her eyes were they reminded him of someone else, came to him again. This time instead of jumping at him, she rested her head at his feet. He couldn't help but smile.

For a whole week he kept it up, less and less neighbours were complaining and quieter dogs came by the neighbourhood. The dark persistent one was slowly but surely growing on him. 

He didn't miss a single three am appointment for the whole month until he had to work over time. He didn't even realize until he was making his way to the apartment and the dark persistent one came sprinting towards him. He hushed her by running his hand on her head in circles and scratching the back of her ears which he now knew she liked.

The other three dogs waiting out by the apartment door was livid, louder than he ever he'd heard any dogs. His neighbours opened the windows, screamed and cursed louder than ever.

After that anytime he worked over time he became antsy and only kept thinking of the dogs, especially the dark persistent one. He thoroughly considered quiting his job as a bouncer, if not for the loud noises, bright lights and clingy people, for the dogs.

Before he could do so he came home later than usual one night. Walking the small path to the apartment was filled with disappointment when the dark persistent one was nowhere to be seen, but as he turned the corner and saw a group of people and indeed a group of dogs he felt relieved. Though that only lasted for a few seconds.

Because when he got closer he could see what was going on and he didn't know what to make of it.

One of the people turned around, Aleksander with the receding hairline in his grey robe turned around, staring straight at him with a pointing finger.

"This, this is your fault! You kept feeding them, now they won't leave and are louder than ever!" Aleksander spit through gritted teeth.

He ignored him and looked at the dogs. 

One of them were lying down on the ground, not moving. The dark persistent one was crying.

He turned to look at Aleksander.

"Did you do this?" 

He couldn't tear his eyes away from the pool of blood on the ground.

He ended up losing it, like in the early days. He wrapped his fingers around Aleksander's neck, stare going blank and hollow as he saw the reflection of himself in Aleksander's petrified eyes.

He had to leave Macedonia after that. There was no choice. However it took him some days to do so. He threatened Aleksander not to report the police of what he'd done to him and all the other eyewitnesses were already terrified enough.

He spent that night burying the dog and washing away his blood on the outside of the apartment. While the dogs had first been one of the first joys in his newfound life, they were also one of his first sorrows as he shed a tear at the ground when the dog was buried. This was the first time he let the dark persistent one in to his embrace.

The night after that, right before three am, he left three breadloafs outside the apartment with three bowls with milk filled to the edge. With a duffelbag, he waited outside the apartment. No dogs showed up.

He couldn't leave.

By four o'clock he heard the rattling of the bushes, the sound of paws against gravel. In front of him stood the dark persistent one. He realized he was both smiling and crying at the same time. He watched as she ate a whole loaf of bread, drank a full bowl of milk. He had to shoo her away from the other bowls.

"For your brothers," he said.

He left Macedonia that night, decided that the Balkans just weren't for him, but his little companion from there surely was.

He looked at the dark persistent one looking at him while stretching her paws on his new couch in Seoul.


End file.
